I think you are one of the few people here that really gets Harry.
While this is an excellent compliment (thank you 😘), I don’t really think it’s true. I see a lot of people in this fandom that offer Harry the same level of generosity and interest that I do, if not more. (My dash is filled with them, actually.) Mostly because loving an artist — truly loving them — comes with that kind of grace and curiosity built in, and it only grows over time.
I know the top-level, lowest common denominator, GP chatter about him can feel overwhelming and tedious and, more than anything, so, so loud, but I tend to look at it one of three ways:
1) the people who don’t get him and have no interest in getting to know him as an actual artist vs as a celebrity don’t really love him and will therefore be gone in one-to-two trend cycles and just need to be waited out, or
2) the people who dislike him are determined to dislike him, and would continue to even if he did turn out to be the second coming of Christ, and can only be left alone to stew in their misplaced anger, or
3) the people who really love him and have not yet seen through the veil are on the precipice of a mind-blowing discovery and just need one eensie-weensie little random push by the right trigger at the right moment, and need to be given patience, because many of us (me) also entered this fandom through the blank-canvas-fantasy route and were given the space to learn and grow and change and see and love him properly.
And while I seriously hate (and I mean full body, visceral, vicious rage) hearing baseless, shallow, comment-section-echo-chamber criticism of him, I do largely end up shrugging it off because getting Harry is such a gift, and I just feel so sad for the people who don’t/don’t want to try.
Like, I get to watch an artist I respect so much hold out his hand and invite people (me) into his world while other people get to focus on overhauling their stan account for every new stunt. I am definitely not the one who drew the short straw.
